April 9 2015 -- Having finally mastered the nuances of four-wide drag racing, Steve Torrence returns to the conventional one-on-one format this week when he sends his Capco Contractors dragster after the Top Fuel Championship in the 16th annual SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Runner-up at the sixth NHRA 4Wide Nationals two weeks ago in Charlotte, N.C., Torrence is hoping to ride newly-generated momentum straight into the winners’ circle in an event in which he has reached the semifinals two of the last three years.

A four-time NHRA tour winner and one of the brightest young stars in the Mello Yello Series, Torrence is coming off a 2014 season that was both the most rewarding and most frustrating of his pro career.

The 31-year-old Texan finished a personal best sixth in points, put up career best numbers (3.751 seconds at 329.02 miles per hour) and, for the second straight year, reached the final round of drag racing’s biggest event, the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, Ind.

“That was by far the best season and the best race car I’ve ever had,” Torrence said, “but not to get it into the winners’ circle was painful. I really felt bad for my guys because they worked their butts off to keep us in the hunt. We finished sixth, which was good, but if we had won just three more rounds, we would’ve been second. That’s how good this team is.”

Despite a promising pre-season test, Torrence got off to a slow start this season, bowing out in the first round at two of the first three races.

At Charlotte, though, in his least favorite tour event, the cancer survivor was just .098 of a second away from a drought-ending victory.

“It was a morale booster,” said the 2005 NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster champion. “We all needed that. Now we just have to take that next step.”

It’s been 22 months since Torrence beat Spencer Massey to win the 2013 Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol, Tenn. That’s a long dry spell for someone who has succeeded at every level at which he has raced. Don’t bet that it will continue much longer.

Two qualifying sessions Friday and two more on Saturday will set the lineup for single elimination finals beginning at 10 a.m., Central time, on Sunday.